2012 National Youth Institute Newsletter

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Congratulations to Sammy Jo Greulich for winning the long Beach Unified School District Education Foundation’s ‘Most Inspirational Student Award’. This prestigious award was given at the Annual Education Foundation Dinner. Sammy is a true leader of the Youth Institute and was just hired as one of our staff at our Longfellow Elementary After School WRAP Site.

Congratulations from all of us at the Community Development YMCA Sammy Jo!!!

Season Greetings from YI and CAP!

Youth Institute Thanksgiving Dinner 2011

This monday the Youth Institute took part in the 2nd Annual Thanksgiving Potluck Dinner at St. Luke's Church in Long Beach. We had an amazing turn out with plenty of food to spare, nobody left with an empty stomach. Bob Cabeza, Vice President, gave a memorable toast sharing his experiences from his recent trip to Cambodia and how fortunate we are to have the blessings we do in America. We were all thankful to be able to enjoy the food provided, which was delicious, especially the home-cooked turkey brought by Bob's niece, Jessica. Enjoy the photos from the event below. 

Photos taken by Leo Salcido, Senior Art Director Change Agent Productions.

College Readiness Retreat in Yosemite

This fall, the YMCA Youth Institute traveled to one of the most beautiful places in the world – Yosemite National Park. Thirty youth & staff spent four days enjoying the warmth of the valley and cool star lit nights. It was a first time experience for all the youth and some of the staff who attended and gazed upon this magnificent wonder of nature. The youth & staff hiked for 90 minutes to our secret climbing wall that was over 750 feet from the valley floor below North Dome. Youth and staff also biked around the valley visiting the museum, Yosemite Falls and Mirror Lake. It was an experience for all who attended; swimming in the river, night hikes into the meadows, rock climbing and riding bikes. This was the perfect venue to talk to the youth about their future academic goals and post-secondary education. Eddie Gardner delivered a great College Readiness program discussion.To see more pictures of the event Click HERE.

2011 YAM LA Event

The YMCA Youth Institute for the past 3 years has been an active member of the Youth Arts & Media Los Angeles (YAM LA) group. As one of its founding members, we have been fortunate enough to work with some of these agencies 11 years ago in providing technical support – digital media arts training and purchasing of technology to start their own Digital Media Arts Programs. This year was our Second annual event to showcase the creative talents of all the youth in LA County in the areas of digital photography, digital storytelling, 8mm filmmaking, dance, music, DJ and skate boarding. For more information about YAM LA Click HERE. To see more pictures of the event Click HERE.

A New Decade in the Youth Institute Has Begun

Congratulations to the graduating class of the 2011 Youth Institute (YI). This new class was a very unique group of young people who brought a resurgence of creativity and leadership that will take the Youth Institute into a new decade. Over 45 films were showcased on August 6, 2011 at the Scottish Rite Cathedral. Over 400 people were in attendance. It was also a special day for 16 youth from Central Los Angeles who have joined the legacy of the Youth Institute by becoming the first graduating class of the Community Build Youth Institute. It was but one of five Youth Institute programs operating this summer. The replication of the Youth Institute has expanded this past summer — year one of Community Build YI, year one of Children’s Institute YI, year two for the East Palo Alto YI, year six for Stephens Middle School YI, and year eleven for the Long Beach Youth Institute. For pictures of the event visit our Youth Institute Website.

Celebrating 10 Years of the Youth Institute

On May 26^th 150 very important guests attended the Youth Institute 10 Year Celebration Dinner at the Grand in Long Beach. The dinner was hosted by the Youth Institute Alumni, with Phyras Men as the Committee Leader and Leo Salcido as the Master of Ceremonies. The night began with great entertainment from three very talented Youth Institute Alums, Johnny Romero on guitar, Nicole Gutierrez on violin and Ben Falealili performing his Spoken Word piece. Then we gave out awards to our supporters who stuck with us over the years such as Alan Hostrup. Ralph Hurtado and Sally Lew. We also gave awards to our long time financial supporters such as the California Emerging Technology Foundation, ZeroDivide, the California Consumer Protection Foundation, the Beneventures Foundation, Brian Kariger, Marilyn Bohl and Southern California Edison. We want to especially thank the Jeanne Giovannoni Trust for her generous donation for this event. But most of all we wanted to honor our Youth and Alumni who grew up out of the Youth Institute but always find ways to give back. A huge thanks to the YI Alumni Committee for putting on a flawless and professional celebration that the next group will have a hard time matching at the fifteen year event!! Click here to view the photos .

CALSAC 2011

During this Years California School-Age Consortium (or CalSAC) we had 5 youth go to the Capitol Building in Sacramento to advocate for Afterschool programs. Our youth met with other students and advocates from all across the state of California. They shared conversation and ideas on how they can spread the word of keeping Afterschool programs funded in our communities. The youth then had the chance to meet with Legislators and spread their word right to the source. It was a great success and the youth are all looking forward to next year. Click here to view the pics!

Battle of the Bands 3

The Youth Institute hosted its 3rd Annual Battle of the Bands, high school bands were selected to duke it out in a very intense competition held at the Scottish Rite Cathedral Theater. Georgia Terminal, Twin Pines, The Anachronisms, and 3rd Perspective all put on their game faces to play a fifteen-minute set each that evening. Along with the competing bands, we had three very special guest performers, Fox Hollow, JL, which includes our very own alumni Leslie and John, and The Marital, which includes alumni, Kevin, Matt, and Nick. With the support of our alumni, the bands, and our community, we raised over $3000 for our YMCA and Youth Institute. Special thanks to Zumiez for supporting the event and State Farm Insurance for co-sponsoring our event! Their generosity led to a fun-filled raffle. The grand raffle prize, a new Macbook, was the ultimate showstopper! Three hours of inspiring music, fun giveaways, endless amounts of laughing and screaming, our third Battle of the Bands was no less than successful. Our packed house with over 400 guests attending the event gave us a reason to prepare for our next Battle of the Bands! Click here to view all of the photos.

Youth Institute/CAP at NAYDO 2011

Wed., April 27th – Sat., April 30th

Growing up we are usually taught to give three words that describes a significant event. I believe that I took away more than three simple words. I took back experience itself as well as life-long motivation. NAYDO is designed to, well, in a lack of better words, to get “the know” or find what’s “in” I was able to see so many people around the world who’s motives were to better their community by either establishing a program for the youth and elderly or taking what they learn back to their programs and continue building from there. Although I was one of the youngest attendees present I felt even more compelled to be a part of this event for years to come.

On Tuesday night we arrived at the Marriot hotel in Anaheim, California expecting to jump into the comfortable beds provided by the hotel. Instead we were told to sort and write inventory of the equipment. The technology that was packed into our room became important to the conference as I soon realized. Roughly an hour later everything was set and batteries where charging. The only thing we had to do was get some rest, because at 7:30 AM we had to be dressed and ready for the conference.

Even before the conference we were meeting people from other YMCAs during breakfast. I personally met a program coordinator from Stockton, California. Within twenty minutes we were introduced to the CEO and Vice President of the YMCA of Mexico City. I didn’t realize what we had gotten ourselves into. Besides Bob, we were all under the age of 25, but very willing to meet and greet with important people. Although we were told that we would be meeting important figures, in a way I felt that they were coming to meet us.

As an exhibitor I and the other interns of Change Agents managed the exhibit that show cased what we had done and the services we could provide for other YMCAs who were interested in our work. Many recognized our unique logo and cheerful, youthful, looks from the brochures that greeted there office weeks prior to the conference. We were greeted by people saying, “Yeah, I saw the flyer!” or “I just had to come by and learn more.” After blushing a little, it was time to get down to business; get them interested, but not holding their time to long ,and getting straight to the point. Surprisingly my peers and I quickly adapted to this environment easily with hardly a dull moment. I found that working with someone is a lot easier than jumping into a river by myself. We were able to feed off of each other making the conversation easier. We learned the difficulties of marketing a product and the importance of having or building abilities to network with people in hopes for them to come seeking for more. Many were impressed by the work that we were doing in Long Beach, but they were more impressed by our ages. Someone said that they simply were drawn to your booth because it felt like we were the freshest in the room. That made me laugh a little, but it showed that liveliness and presentation was as important. Besides shaking hands we were also in charge of gathering photos of the conference that would be shown the following evening. Many of us recorded footage and even got a few to shout “NAYDO rocks!!” which was one of the highlights of the conference. The work was rigorous, but for the staff that stayed up late at night to finish projects, it was all worth it. The products were beautiful and the crowd was pleased.

We were also allowed to dine with the conference and enjoy each key-note speaker each night. My most memorable experiences I had during those evening was watching Father Boyle deliver a breathtaking and eye watering speech that had everyone in the room simply moved. Beside his poetic dissertation and his heart felt stories of the kids he works with every day, he was still able to embody the importance of kinship and compassion. Every key-note speaker brought something new and unique to the podium and truly gave the audience a sense of urge to give and give to their communities the information they had taken form NAYDO.

I do hope that in the near future I could re-live my experiences I shared with my colleges here at NAYDO.

To see pictures of this event click here

Written by:

Dasire’e P. (Youth Institute Student)

Youth Institute San Fransisco Trip 2011

Change Agents & The Youth Institute Just got back from San Francisco and it was awesome! Visited Apple Inc. where we actually got and Executive Briefing from the Apple Dream Team Engineers. Visited the East Palo Alto YMCA Youth Institute where we did a screening of our movies, played B-Ball and climbed their wall! And last, we toured the city from the Haunted Fort Mason youth Hostel. That place ROCKS! Check out the pics!

Youth Institute 10th Year Anniversary Celebration

You are invited to our 10th Year Youth Institute Anniversary Celebration. Join us for dinner and presentations to celebrate a program like no other. Hear the stories, engage with the youth and meet our funders. RSVP to Bob Cabeza: bob.cabeza@lbymca.org

Long Beach Police Chief McDonald Visits Youth Institute

Long Beach Police Chief McDonald Visits Youth Institute - Our new Police Chief McDonald visited our Youth Institute on March 30th and had an open dialogue with our Teens about their perceptions of police in general and the police side of the story. Chief McDonald was both factual, caring, and inspirational to our Teens letting them know how police can better interact with them and how they can help the police. It was inspiring to hear that Office McDonald is a first generation American from Ireland who grew up in a poor family. "He can relate" was a comment from one of our teens.

Staff Spotlight: Maria Gandarilla Awarded at CSULB

Maria Gandarilla, Youth Institute Alumni, Y Staff

Named Outstanding Graduate of the Year by the School of Health and Human Services at California State University Long Beach

Maria Gandarilla, Youth Institute Class of 2004, was named the Outstanding Graduate of the Year by California State University faculty this March, 2011. This honor was bestowed on Maria at a special ceremony held at CSULB. Maria has grown up at our Community Development YMCA. She and her family participated in our JCPP program back in the late 90’s. She was a part of our CORAL after school programs ten years ago and was a part of our Youth Institute from 2004 to present day. Maria went to CSULB to study Social Work. She gets her undergraduate degree BSW this May and will go into the MSW program at CSULB this fall.

We are so proud of Maria’s accomplishments and wish to extend our congratulations to another one of the YMCA Youth Institute success stories during the past ten years. You are a part of our YMCA family and will always have a place here at our YMCA!

By Bob Cabeza (VP, Community Development)

2011 Campaign Victory Dinner

March 3, 2011 YMCA of Greater Long Beach met once again at the Sycamore Centre in Lakewood, CA to share successes of this years campaign. The night was opened up by our very own Angel Ramirez. Angel has been a part of the Community Development YMCA since 1st grade. He is a Youth Institute graduate/alumni and was recently accepted to Cal State University Long Beach. The night continued with inspirational stories from all the branch leaders highlighting where all the donations end up. Bob Cabeza, VP of Community Development, shared about Maria Gandarilla, also a youth institute alumni, who recently received the award for most outstanding student of the year for the College of Health and Human Services at CSULB. All the stories were inspiring and left a feeling of success whether or not goals were met. The night ended with a video produced by Change Agent Productions which put a spotlight on all the hard work the association put forth.